9.22.2004

Relatinships in Relationship

Lately, I have been pondering how my relationship with God re-frames my relationships with other people. Now I'm starting to see that it goes the other way, too.

I am embarking on a "spiritual direction" relationship with a woman from our church. I've never done anything like this before, but the idea seems to be that Katie, who is completing a graduate program in spiritual formation, will come along side me and mentor me in my prayer life. We just had our first meeting this morning, but even now I'm struck with the shift in perspective that comes with intentionally inviting another person into my prayer life.

The simplest explanation for the relationship between the earth and the sun is that the sun must revolve around the earth. Of course you can come up with complicated theories of how it is otherwise, but they are very unintuitive, and smack of nonsense.

When you add Mars and Venus into the equation, however, everything changes. Suddenly, centering everything around the earth requires convoluted mathematical gyrations, and the heliocentric model has the ring of truth.

This paradigm shift is simultaneously humbling and thrilling. Because, of course, I'm awfully feeble and insignificant for the center of the universe, and as such I'm really rather worthless. On the other hand, as a member of the Body of Christ, I am precious and beloved, and by God's grace, I am fully capable of doing all that He has called for me to do.